Participants at the Global Fund's Third Replenishmentmeeting for the period 2011-2013, held in The Hague, on 24-25 March 2010,acknowledged that continued scale-up of Global Fund programmes would berequired to meet the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by2015, and that even the scenarios presented by the Fund would not be sufficientto meet the needs.

As of June 2010, 5.7 million lives have been saved as a result of programmes supported by the Global Fund, according to estimates recently released by the Fund. The Global Fund calculates that this means that another 4,000 deaths are averted every day.

In 2009, only 47% of the Global Fund's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) achieved 90% or more of their target, down from 60% in 2008. But overall, the Fund's KPI performance was modestly up in 2009 over 2008.

This is based on an analysis by the Fund of 26 KPIs that had been set by the Board in 2008. Some of the KPIs cover performance by Global Fund grant recipients; others cover performance by the Secretariat.

Every day, programmes supported by the Global Fund save at least 3,600 lives, and there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of services delivered. These are two of the highlights of "The Global Fund 2010: Innovation and Impact," a report on results achieved which was released by the Global Fund on 8 March 2010.

Mother-to-child HIV transmission may be eliminated by 2015; malaria may be eliminated as a public health problem within a decade; TB prevalence could be halved by 2015. However, these health targets can only be achieved if current rates of scaling up expenditure on the three diseases are maintained and, ideally, further accelerated.

Civil society (CS) has played a key role in the design and development of the Global Fund, and in the response to AIDS, TB and malaria, but some challenges remain if the contribution of CS is to be maximised. This is the main message of a new report released by the Global Fund, “An Evolving Partnership: The Global Fund and Civil Society in the Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.”

Local Fund Agents (LFAs) perform work of very variable quality, yet the Fund provides little guidance regarding what it expects of them, according to a report released last month by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).